Torn // Poe Dameron

22. Tatooine

There it is, the little homestead right outside Mos Eisley. With every step his thick, leather boots descend further downstairs into the little shack, he temperature cools down to a pleasant coolness. The sand and the merciless heat is unbearable for the man dressed completely in black.

They had landed on Tatooine a couple minutes before and found the ship the pilot used to take off with Izora, an old A-wing, typically flown by resistance pilots. The ship is here and the homestead shows various signs of people living there. The food, the clothes, the one freshly made bed and the other one, duvet crumpled on top. Izora always makes her bed.

Next to all this evidence, he feels her aura in this room. The force never lies, she was here, maybe still is. Where would they be if the ship is still here? There is nothing on this damn planet made out of sand, except for the city, Mos Eisley, with all its shady cantinas and filthy smugglers.

He steps out into the sun, black robe flowing behind his body as he strides to the stormtroopers who had gathered outside the homestead.

"Officer" his synthesised, deep, metallic voice booms and the squadrons officer steps forward.
"Yes, commander"
"The city. I want it searched, every street, every condominium, every establishment. Every inch of Mos Eisley, I want it searched, understood?"
"Yes, sir" he salutes and prepares his troops.

Shortly after their arrival, the city erupts into hectic screaming, people running around, looking for safety. He isn't here for their smuggling or whatever ilegal businesses are going on here. He couldn't care less.

A Mon Calamari is dropped to his feet, pushed by the soldiers dressed in white.
"He says, he saw her with the resistance pilot, sir"
Kylo Ren's dark eyes look down on the amphibious species on the dusty ground in front of him.

"What do you know?" Through the black slits in his mask, he looks at the alien in disgust, crawling at his feet, weak, pathetic. He pushes himself to his hands and looks up with his big, yellow eyes tinted with fear.

"They came into Chalmun's Cantina because they needed materials to repair their ship" he stutters. Then Kylos force hand encloses on the Mon Calamaris throat, lifting him to the air, feet dangling over the dusty ground.

"Who exactly came in?"
"P-poe Dameron and--Izora- Izora Solo" his voice turned into a plead for breath, struggling at the invisible force applied on his neck.

Kylos jaw clenches, caused by a mixture of feelings. Unsure if fury or defeat takes control. A gnawing distress arising from within, pulling his face into a grimace that luckily is concealed by the cold mask.
She found out.

"Where did they go?" Despite the emotions swirling around his stomach, his voice sounds as stern and threatening as always.
"To-uh...to the junkyard with... Rinmaru-" he drops him to the floor, sucking in much needed oxygen.

Kylo Ren strokes past him, just to encounter something much more interesting. A brief sensation. A little fizzle, disrupting the atmosphere for just a second but Kylo picked it up.
The feeling in the air leads him around the corner of another shabby Cantina.

"Yes" he whispers to himself. She was here, right here. And she was scared.
Her distress still hanging in the air, vividly.

When was the last time he ever saw fear in her eyes? No, his sister is fearless. On any mission, however dangerous or important, she executed her tasks flawlessly and she knew she did. There was no fear. When he killed the other padawans...no. She wanted to take his hand until their uncle interrupted. No fear. It must have been when they were children.
When Leia was away, fulfilling her duty as a respected senator and Han was unable to stay in one place for long, the two of them were alone.
Kylo was out, he can't recall where he went and why though, and when he came back after some time, Izora ran into his arms. The little girl was crying, thinking her brother had left her. The feeling of abandonment was drawn all over her small face, dark eyes filled with relief, but it couldn't cover up the fear she was feeling before.

What must have happened for her to be scared? Right here, in a random side street.

"Commander Ren" a Stormtrooper shook him out of his thoughts.
Kylo Ren walks back onto the main street and his eyes land on a familiar face. The man has a reputation that follows him through the entire galaxy.

"The Resistance's best pilot" his low, dangerous voice draws Poes eyes up to his mask. Blood runs down the side of his face, he must have put up a fight. One against several stormtrooper, what a fool, Kylo thinks to himself.

He bends down to be on eye level with the pilot kneeling on the ground.
"Poe Dameron is fine" he hisses. Fury distorts his face. Kylo doesn't need to roam his mind to know that the pilot hates him with a venom too fierce to die. His lips curled and his nostrils flared. His mind feels as if lead is coursing though it instead of blood.

Poe hates what he did to Izora. That he took her away and tormented her with false memories and lies. He hurt her when he went to the dark side, he hurt her when he took her and crumbled her to pieces, putting her back together in a wrong way. Dark and twisted.

"Alright, Poe Dameron. Where is she?"
Poe kept quiet for a while before he hisses, "Go to hell"
"That's ok. I can just take whatever I want," his hands move from his knees to right in front of the pilot's face.

His face contorts, first trying to shut him out of his mind and then because of the painful ringing in his head, feeling like Kylo Ren is crushing his brain.

He finds what he needs. The two of them sitting at the bar of a Cantina when Stormtroopers enter. Everyone jumps up, trying to escape. He looses her in the crowd, finds her with a Rodian. He expected them to see each other outside, they know the green alien. He never saw her again though, searching the city, investigating.

He draws his hand back and Poe releases a relieved breath, trying to shake the pain off his skull and the imprints off his brain.

"Put him on board." He orders and the troopers yank him to his feet and push him away. There is one person that seems to know where Izora is.

The Rodian.